The film opens with a scene of a wealthy young man (Chaplin) arriving at his house in a taxi in the morning after a night of heavy drinking. He tries in vain to grasp the handle on the outside. He thinks, "They really need to place the handles near the door."

When he finally does find it after some searching, he gets out, with his hand on the open taxi window. However, in his drunkenness, he thinks his hand is stuck, and tries to pull it out. "I never did like taxis," he remarks.

He then takes out his handkerchief, blows his nose on it, and wipes the mucus onto the taxi door, in an attempt to free his hand. However, his handkerchief falls, and Charlie, in his drunkenness, never thinks of the fact that he has to just withdraw his hand and walk from the side to retrieve his handkerchief, almost wrecks the taxi and very nearly kills himself in trying to retrieve his handkerchief the hard way.

All this while, the taxi driver (Albert Austin) never reacts. Thanks to a big miracle (well, according to the drunk, anyway!), Charlie withdraws his hand, and headbutts the taxi door so hard he knocks himself back inside. Fortunately, though, he'd grabbed his hanky by then. This is what has been questioned by critics—how a drunk man can have better reflexes than the average sober man.

#Classic #movie #Charlie #1916 #oneAM